Ras El Hanout Lamb Tagine with Pumpkin and Apricots

The blustery days of Autumn, blowing leaves in shades of burnt orange and gold make me happy. The mornings are crisp and clean. Walking barefooted out into our back yard early morning, the coffee cup in my hand steaming white puffs in the cool air and the moist dew against my feet give me that needed moment of serenity before I jump into my day.

In the horizon, beyond the houses and over the hills, the sun begins it’s rise for the day. It still feels slightly unusual at the late start it gets at this time of the year, but it rewards me with a spectacular blazing sky, colored in fire red and deep purple. It almost makes me forget the darker, gloomy Winter days looming ahead.

I feel inspired for the rest of the day and the colors of the season prompt me to create soothing and satisfying dishes infused with exotic spices and aromas.

When my friend gave me this homegrown pumpkin from her garden, it sat on my kitchen counter top for a few days. Each morning I looked at it as I poured my coffee and prepared breakfast for Soeren and me. Each day I had new plans for it.

A cake. Muffins. Salad. Roast it. Steam it. But then on one cool morning as I scraped the car free from the first frost of the season, my body yelled “a stew!”

At the time I was writing an article about exotic spices from around the world. One of these magnificent spices was Ras El Hanout. A wonderful box filled with this delicate was sitting in my cabinet, something I had picked up from my last trip to Dubai earlier this year. The recipe for the tagine began taking form as I drove Soeren to school that morning. By the end of the day I had more or less worked through the recipe and headed towards the market with my ingredient list.

Ras El Hanout

Literally, Ras El Hanout means "top of the shop" and is a Moroccan spice blend, which can contain more than 30 spices. It is a matter of honor for the Moroccan spice merchant to provide the most sought after blend of spices and there are stories of merchants creating custom blends of ras el hanout for special clients with ingredients that include hashish. The traditional blend however consists of the more conventional aromatic ingredients like coriander seeds, allspice, nutmeg, lavender and rose buds to name a few. Ras el hanout has a spicy kick, a floral fragrance and subtle nuances within an overall robust flavor. Extremely versatile, it can be used for chicken, lamb and vegetables, imparting its gorgeous golden color and enticing flavor to the dishes. Transcend an ordinary couscous with a sprinkling of ras el hanout or enhance a lamb roast with a ras el hanout spice rub - the difference will not go unnoticed.

Ras El Hanout added the perfect highlight for this tagine, complementing the flavors of the lamb, pumpkin and the sweetness of the apricots. You should be able to find ras el hanout in well sorted stores and spice shops. You can also have a go at making this aromatic spice mix yourself. The lovely Haalo from Cook Almost Anything Once has a great recipe for a homemade ras el hanout spice blend.

I do not have a typical tagine to cook the dish in instead I simply used a large casserole and it still offered all the lovely aromatic flavors.

In a large, deep casserole heat the oil. Add the onions, then gently sauté until softened and transparent, about 5 minutes. Stir in the finely chopped ginger then add the meat in portions and fry on all sides until lightly colored. Return all the meat to the pan, stir in the ras el hanout and cinnamon sticks, then cook for 1 minute.

Add the passata and about 300ml water and bring to the boil, stirring occasionally . Season with salt and pepper, then cover and simmer for approx 1.5 hours, until the lamb is tender and literally melts in your mouth.

Add the pumpkin cubes, stir well, cover again, then cook for another 20 minutes or until the pumpkin cubes are just tender. Stir in the apricots and heat through for 5 minutes. Taste and adjust seasoning if necessary.

A delicate sprinkling of an exotic spice over a soothing dish will often take me away to a fantasy place in the deeper realms of my imagination. Here I was walking the spice bazaars of Casablanca and I swear I could literally smell the spicy scents filling the air and hear the shouts of the men in their shops tempting us to buy their colorful spices. As I served the tagine I am sure I was able to take my dinner guests on this trip with me too.

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37 comments:

guess what we'll be having for dinner one night this week ?! :) i love cooking lamb tagine - with different dried fruits especially prunes, and sometimes dried figs too. and i just love cooking pumpkin, period ! i used to have a jar of ras el hanout that we brought back from morocco, and as time went on, we kept forgetting more and more of the spices we were told were in it ! haha ! fantastic recipe, can't wait to try...

That's so funny - I had a home-grown pumpkin that a lovely friend had brought me, also sitting in my kitchen counter for the last week,wondering what I shoul dmake with it and suddenly over the weekend my body shouted SOUP! :)

Love this dish - I love the fruity & spice flavour of tagines. Ras el Hanout has such a fantastic flavour - got to get me some! I feel warmer just looking at your gorgeous pics.

Meeta,I've been a lurker for YEARS! Lots of great recipes, pictures, and inspiration :) And this one is no exception. Many people don't realize how prominently pumpkin can figure into North African cuisine and how delicious it is - I'm going to serve this one with cous cous real soon :)

My 2 minutes allocated to read your post led to 15 via the Dubai links. It's always interesting to see another perspective on the place that you live. I feel embarrassed but I have no ras al hanout in my cupboard. Must recitfy!!

Right, time for me to source some ras el hanout then! This looks great, and just the thing for this time of year. I love the blend of spicy and sweet that Moroccan food offers. We've got both pumpkins and squash sitting in our shed, begging to be used - I'll let you know when I've given your recipe a try.

Sigh, this is such a cozy, warming dish, Meeta. :-) Dear friends just invited me over for "hearty stew" next week and I'm so looking forward to it. :-) I love using exotic and new spices, and although I've eaten ras-el-hanout, I've never cooked with it. I will have to remedy that soon. :-)

Gorgeous, Delicious, Divine Lamb Tagine! Love the addition of Pumpkins and Apricots! I was in Fes, Morocco this past June and brought back a stash of Ras-el-Hanout, which by the way I still have not used in any recipe! I must soon! :)

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Hello, I am Meeta a freelance food photographer, stylist and writer living in the cuturally rich city of Weimar, Germany with my husband and our son, where I enjoy preparing multi-cultural home cooked meals with fresh organic ingredients. What's for lunch, Honey? is my award winning food blog where I combine my love for food with my love for photography and styling...